Competing against other top business schools, students from the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (FIU) won third place in the national Johnson & Johnson Business Case Competition, March 29-April 1, 2012.
A team of international business, finance and Honors College undergraduate students—Litong Chen, Carlos E. Gomez, Giorgio Izzo, Prince Mikado and Maximilian A. Staedtler—were chosen as finalists by Johnson & Johnson judges in a preliminary FIU competition held February 28th, organized by Dawn Lazar (MS ’06), Career Management Services.
The winning group then advanced to the national event held at the company’s worldwide headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey. University of Florida took first place; second place went to Rutgers – Newark. Students from Penn State, Rider, Seton Hall and University of Illinois were among the participants.
The case, distributed in early February, allowed contenders to test their skills as real-world financial consultants.
“The situation involved a fictitious company named MediHealth,” Mikado said. “Our job was to present an acquisition strategy, including marketing plans, concerning a European skin care products company.”
“We backed up our various decision points, including parity pricing versus premium pricing, mass or prestige point of sale, and more, with statistics and analysis,” Staedtler said. “We even visited a skin care store as research.”
A number of people from FIU helped the team practice and prepare for the national competition including Yanyn San Luis (BA ’10), the college’s student and alumni relations coordinator; members of the Honors College; and staff of the Communication Arts Studio.
Big benefits in competing—and placing.
In addition to receiving a $2,000 cash prize for being named as finalists (a prize they will divide equally), the students were provided with airfare and accommodations by Johnson & Johnson for the national competition.
“This was the best team experience I have ever had, with each of us working hard, totally prepared, focused and understanding all facets of our presentation,” Staedtler said.
